Opinion BY Armin

Golden, Angry Bears

The University of California Athletic Department manages the 29 varsity athletic programs and various club teams of the University of California, Berkeley, that compete in the NCAA Division I in the Pac-12 Conference. The California Golden Bears (or just “Cal”) have won 82 national team titles in 15 different sports over its history and are consistently one of the winningest teams across all universities in the U.S., and its students have accrued 159 Olympic medals, 91 of which are gold, as participants in the Games. Last week, Cal introduced a new identity and uniforms designed by Nike’s Graphic Identity Group. (Yes, them again).

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A B-Side BY Armin

Southland Conference

Established in 1963, the Southland Conference participates in all sports in NCAA’s Division I and includes ten teams from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisian. A revision to its logo, designed by Norman, OK-based Old Hat Creative, was announced in June From the press release: “[The] mark now has a beveled, three-dimensional look, and a brighter gold trim is now two-toned and also beveled. The familiar Southland starburst on the full logo has also been modified to feature 10 points.” Bigger view of the logo below (or after the jump).

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Opinion BY Christian Palino

The Sky’s the Limit

As the Division I Big Sky Conference — that spans from the left-ish middle of the country to the West Coast of the U.S. — expands to eleven full-time members (and two affiliate members) this year, they’ve launched their new logo and branding campaign. In 2011 SME (who also handled the Pac-10 rebranding) was awarded the 2012 rebranding, advertising, and marketing contract by the Big Sky Conference, work that will continue into 2014 for the league’s 50th anniversary.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Utah State Athletics

The Utah State Aggies are the Division I athletics teams of Utah State University. Last week, they announced a complete redesign of their logos and uniforms, designed by Nike. Press release here, press gallery and videos here. One more image and one video below (or after the jump). Quick, someone call Wall Street, their bull is on the loose.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl

Formerly known as the Humanitarian Bowl, an NCAA football game that features “a top selection from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and the Mid-American Conference (MAC)” and is the longest-running outdoor cold-weather Bowl, played since 1997. The Idaho Potato Commission has signed a six-year naming rights deal to sponsor the bowl and it follows “the tradition of commodity-named bowl games with connections to a state’s top agricultural export.” (i.e., the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl). But let’s be honest here, this is on Brand New because I have always wanted to post a logo that is a potato-colored football covered with sour cream and chives. Press release here.

Thanks to Noah Rothschild for the tip.

Opinion BY Armin

Sinking Rock

Established in 1999, the Mountain West Conference is the youngest conference in the NCAA Division I — compare that to those of previous reviews here, the Big 10 (1896) and the Pac10 (1959) — and its original members were the Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV, and Wyoming. Texas Christian University joined in 2005 and in the next two years BYU and UNLV will leave while Boise State, Fresno State, University of Nevada, and University of Hawaii will join. With so many changes the conference considered this a good time to introduce a new logo, designed by San Diego-based Savacool Secviar who were brought into the project by Loma Media, also from San Diego.

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Opinion BY Armin

Ten is the New Twelve

Established in 1896, the Big Ten Conference is the oldest athletic division within the ultra competitive Division I level of the NCAA, representing teams in 25 different sports — 12 for men, 13 for women, spanning football, basketball, soccer, rowing, and more. The Big Ten represents some of the leading teams in the country… as its name implies, it started with ten teams (University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Iowa, Indiana University, Ohio State University, Michigan State University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, and Purdue University), adding one in 1990 (Pennsylvania State University, which explains the “11” hidden in the original logo) and one more will begin play in 2011 (University of Nebraska-Lincoln). In terms of football and basketball, these are big deal teams with rabidly passionate fans so it comes as no surprise that the big story yesterday was the announcement of a new Big Ten identity designed by Pentagram partners Michael Bierut and Michael Gericke.

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Opinion BY Armin

Pac-10 does The Wave (and The Mountain)

I have always been amazed at both the freakish passion with which Americans love their college sports and the economical, social and logistical complexity of its athletic governing body, the NCAA. Every layer of the operation matters. Which is why something as natural as a redesign can be turned into a big media crusade when one of the more than thirty conferences that make up the NCAA announces a redesign. The Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) is not just any conference, of course, it is one of the most successful, specifically in the sport that inspires the most freakazoid passion, football, counting perennial champions UCLA, Stanford and the University of Southern California among its ten teams. The Pac-10, however, has not been as successful as its East Coast counterparts in securing broadcast and sponsorship deals, in part because by the time a game starts on the West Coast, East Coasters are already watching The Daily Show. Storming New York City this month with press conferences, Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott introduced a new brand positioning crafted by New York-based SME Branding and the new identity designed by Portland, OR-based Mutt.

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